


Promises

by Pastel_Teacups



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-13
Updated: 2013-10-13
Packaged: 2017-12-29 06:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1002334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pastel_Teacups/pseuds/Pastel_Teacups
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Army!AU, Pavel thinks Leonard is coming home, but he couldn't be more wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promises

Pavel sat on his end of the sofa, sipping a cup of hot tea. This was it, the final stretch. The day Leonard was supposed to come home. He anxiously threw occasional glances out the window, biting his lip lightly. It was late afternoon, and Pavel started growing anxious, wondering vaguely if the man had died, and his angst slowly festered into irrational and unadulterated /fear,/ the lines of text on his PADD growing into blurred things. He worries all the way into the evening, and his heart stops when he hears a knock at the door.

 

He drops his PADD on the table and quickly makes his way over to the door, smiling lightly and wondering how he could ever have thought Leonard had abandoned him. He’d promised he’d come back, and he did. He knew he did.

 

But when he opens the door, it isn’t Leonard.

 

It’s Jim, who’s holding a bag in one hand, and has a dogtag hanging from the other. He looks up at the man-really a kid, only- and holds the silver pieces out to him. “A bomb was dropped on his camp three days ago. I’m sorry.”

 

The boy takes the necklace in his hand, the name searing his palm as he stared down at it, tears filling his blue eyes. Jim sighs heavily and shuts the door behind him, walking over to the table and setting down his bag, tugging out a bottle of vodka. He finds the two glasses himself as Pavel numbly sits down, tears silently slipping down his cheeks as Jim sets a glass of liquid in front of him, and he downs the whole thing in one gulp. Jim pours him another, and they drink in sad silence to the man’s memory.

—

It’s Pavel who starts it, to be fair.

 

They’re both drunk, Pavel’s finished sobbing for the most part, and they’ve both moved to the couch. And then, Pavel leans over and presses his lips to Jim’s, whimpering softly because it isn’t /Leonard./ But he doesn’t pull away, and neither does Jim, and they kiss sloppily for a long him before Jim lets the teen lay on his back, pressing soft, gentle kisses to the boy’s neck. They take their time undressing, Pavel not in a rush because Jim doesn’t scream the want that the doctor does-did,- and JIm not in a hurry because Pavel’s not in a hurry.

 

So they slowly undress, until their naked bodies touch gently, softly, and Jim prepares and enters him slowly, and Pavel cries silently. Not because it hurts, or that he doesn’t want this, but simply because it isn’t /Leonard,/ and he knows he’ll never be able to feel Leonard at all, let alone like this.

—

When Pavel wakes up, there’s a blanket over him and Leonard’s dogtags are around his neck, and Jim is gone. The teen has a terrible headache, but nothing compares to the pain in his chest. Not simply hypothetically, either. There’s a real, tangible pain there, as if something’s wrong.

—

Two weeks later, when Pavel sees a doctor for the terrible chest pain he’d been hoping would go away with time, he learns what happened.

 

And so, he visits Leonard’s grave.

—

The boy sniffles softly as he sets the flowers down in front of the grave, before sitting down on the cool grass. It’s dark, too late for anybody else to be around. He bites his lip, before sighing shakily and opening his mouth.

 

“Hello, Leonard. It’s me, Pasha.” The boy’s voice cracks at the nickname, but he doesn’t stop. “I vent to ze doctor today. He vasn’t as good as you, but he told me something. And, instead of being upset, I felt relieved.”

 

Pavel gave a ghost of a smile, and reaches out a hand to stroke the grass, as if they were in a park, and Leonard was laying right beside him, and Pavel had reached out to stroke his hair.

 

“I’m sick. I’m wery sick, zey say I don’t have wery long. So you see? I’ll be joining you, soon.”

 

The grips the dogtag around his neck, and gives a broken sob. 

“Ve’ll be togezer again. Like you promised.”


End file.
